A bargain? Officials say yes; report says no

ATLANTA - Whenever they raise tuition, the officials at Georgia's public colleges and universities rely on a statistic to make their case.

Georgia's tuition is one of the best bargains in the region.

Indeed, Georgia's public four-year universities ranked 16th out of 16 states in the Southern Regional Education Board in 2004-05. Two-colleges ranked 14th, with only Mississippi, Texas and North Carolina being less expensive.

But that didn't save the state from a low grade on the 2004 edition of the "Measuring Up" report issued by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. That group gave Georgia an "F" overall, including a "D" for the state's four-year schools.

The organization's grades are based on how much of its income an average Georgia family would have to spend to send their child to a state college or university; how much the state spends on need-based aid; how much of their income a poor family would have to spend to send their child to the cheapest schools in the state; and how much a typical student would have to borrow in a given school year.

Some lawmakers and students also are beginning to wonder if the state's colleges are growing tuition at a rate that might lock some students out of school, or at least their choice of schools.

University officials, for their part, say affordability is one of their key concerns when it comes to setting the tuition rate. But they also say that the state's institutions cannot continue to set low tuition and deliver high quality.

The situation isn't helped by the fact that Georgia has little to no need-based aid for low-income residents who don't qualify for the HOPE Scholarship. Advocates say it's just those students who need the help the most.

Timothy Shelnut, chairman of the University System Board of Regents, doesn't hesitate when asked how much of factor affordability is in crafting tuition rates.

"That's probably (the) No. 1 priority," Shelnut said.

Some university officials are beginning to push for change.

"I don't want to be at the top of that list, but I don't want to be at the bottom of that list, either," said University of Georgia President Michael Adams. "... By any measure we are a tremendous bargain, and I frankly think too big a bargain."

There's only so long those bargain rates can be kept in place before quality begins to be affected, Adams and others say. After all, many of the schools UGA and Georgia Tech are competing with have much higher tuition rates.

"Sooner or later, it's going to catch up with you," said Hank Huckaby, senior vice president for finance and administration at UGA.

Even some lawmakers - naturally curious about tuition because of the effect that it has on their constituents - are willing to give the regents a pass on tuition.

"Our state institutions are well in line compared to the others in the South," said Sen. George Hooks, D-Americus.

Others are already concerned. State Rep. Jane Kidd, an Athens Democrat whose district includes UGA, said it would be better for the state to give more money to colleges and universities than to force them to raise tuition.

"Not every student that can be a worthwhile, fantastic citizen is qualified for the HOPE Scholarship," Kidd said. "And they need affordable education."

And while HOPE is nice for those who can get it, those students are more likely to be well-off financially, observers say. Most students who can get the 3.0 high school grade point average needed to get HOPE, which stands for Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally, are probably not from low-income families, said Mikygn Ryu, a senior policy analyst at the National Center for Public Policy and Education.

"To put it bluntly, those students usually receive that merit-based aid are going to college anyway, without that aid," she said.

"Lots of poor students residing in your state are not given an opportunity to even consider going to college," Ryu said.

By contrast, Georgia has few need-based aid programs, which help students who might not have the best grades or for whom HOPE's coverage of tuition and some book and fee costs isn't enough.

Most of the financial aid programs available to Georgia students are funded at least partially by the federal government. Georgia does provide funding for the joint federal-state grant program called Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership, or LEAP. Those grants are students who qualify for other federal need-based aid like Pell grants. They can go as high as $2,000 a year.

Marie Mons, who oversees financial aid at Georgia Tech, said the state "could never do enough" to help low-income students. Middle- and upper-income Americans are no longer the only ones looking for college opportunity.

"They can't get higher education unless aid is need-based. We need to address that," she said. "The reality is the population that is now coming to be college age is increasingly disadvantaged, and disadvantaged people will need help to afford higher education. ... Cost is a barrier to access."